Bruce Williams had a matter-of-fact gentle and reassuring way of letting radio listeners on Talknet know that they were not alone after the terrible Recession of 1982. I listened religiously during that awful winter after I had been terminated from a large Kansas City corporation. A conservative figure put the toll at 22 million workers. He was the only one telling us how to get back on our feet just as he had done several times. The major networks cared nothing for the little guy. To them the Silent Majority must never be seen or heard.
Bruce used to tell people how to pay off their bills even if it meant working two or three jobs as he had done. He reassured the callers that it was just a matter of time, but it would take hard work and perhaps years. “Penny wise and pound foolish” was a favorite saying of his. For instance, he told one caller that a spread on a CD of 1% wasn’t worth moving to another investment. I also think his New Jersey accent gave him an endearing and believable quality.
Of course, when the opportunity presented itself, I attended one of his appearances at a fancy Corporate Woods hotel in Overland Park, Kansas at the peak of his popularity. After his talk, throngs of button-holing people sought his financial advice. That was then. It was America’s misfortune to see his show fade over the years as counterfeit shows edged him out of the picture. Now, it’s that screaming guy with the rolled up sleeves. Bruce Williams was the calm common sense broadcaster who got me and millions of other Americans to listen to alternative radio.
Chuck Harder’s For the People radio show originally aired from White Springs, Florida at the folksy Telford Hotel. His People’s Network Inc. was carried on 300 radio stations. I picked him up on KBEQ in Kansas City and liked him immediately because he explained the connection between politics and the plight of the working class. He talked about real and important topics and under covered events: the World Trade Organization (WTO); factories moving overseas and good value added jobs disappearing; the corruption of the Clinton administration (Whitewater, the Mena Airport caper, and the mysterious death of Vince Foster); gun control; and the militarization of the police at Waco, Texas. Two other timely topics were vote fraud and the militia movement.
Frequent guests on his show were Ralph Nader and Pat Choate, the 1996 running mate of Ross Perot. Hillary Clinton’s support of the National Health Care Proposal drew much criticism in our Raytown For the People Local Chapter, one of the many affiliate groups founded at the time. Chuck was careful in his “Guidelines for Beginning a For the People Local Chapter” to emphasize “. . . LC’s are separate from the People’s Network Incorporated, People’s Radio Network, and the For the People (FTP) program.” Even so, the IRS, during the Clinton Administration, began its campaign to audit Chuck and For the People threatening its tax exempt status. I read somewhere the litigation lasted 18 years, effectively ending his career. Tea Partiers are not alone.
My listening to For the People and my involvement as a steering committee member of the Raytown For the People Local Chapter (LC) in 1994 led to my early support of United We Stand America and my involvement in the Reform Party. Millions of Americans were fed up with the Republicans and Democrats. I was one of them. Bruce Williams and Chuck Harder on Talk Radio gave us hope and a voice.
